Man of His Word
by BatmansBabe
Summary: SKJ “The man’s touched in the head, Sweetheart. For a second, back in the jungle, I actually thought he was gonna let Mr. Friendly blow your head off just to piss Locke off.”
1. Chapter 1

AN: So I was re-reading all my writing, and I decided that this needed some cleaning up. I'm not getting rid of this for the sake of history, but this isn't anything new, I just cut up the chapters differently. Sorry.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize here is mine. I just play with them…

Man Of His Word

"You're siding with Sawyer? Taking _his _side?"

"I'm not taking anyone's _side,_ Jack. I'm just trying to tell you that he isn't totally off base. You're being a hypocrite. When Sawyer was taking things off bodies, he was disgusting, but the moment he decided they were his, you suddenly wanted them to be the groups'. And now he has the guns, guns _you _wanted, guns only you had, and yet again, you're flying off the wall."

"_Guns_ are a hell of a lot more dangerous than shaving cream, Kate. I was trying to keep everyone safe."

"By handing out a bunch of AK 47's to people who've never used a gun before? By trekking into the jungle with 20 uneducated arms handlers to chase after the Others on your Revolution? You aren't thinking, Jack."

"And you think Sawyer has the rationale to deny or provide someone with those guns?"

"Right now? With you and Locke at war, fighting for power and making rash decisions? And if we add Ana Lucia to the picture…right now I trust the one who saw what would happen if things stayed the way they were going." Her voice had been steadily rising as they moved out of the jungle and toward the camp, covered in shadow as the sunset in front of them. Now they had stopped, standing on opposite sides of a makeshift water well, speaking to each other in voices that traveled a fair distance.

"And what about Sun? Sawyer had something to do with that!"

"I was with him when we heard Sun! I was right next to him when we found her."

"So he got someone else to do it. But he used Sun. And he used you!" It was said as if she hadn't known it before, as if Jack was the one who had realized it first.

Kate sighed. "It's not exactly the first time Sun's been used to achieve someone else's means."

"What are you talking about?" He gave her a confused look, his voice ascending the crescendo it had been approaching.

"The poison. I was the one who suggested Sun poison Jin."

As she had expected, Jack recoiled slightly, looking like he'd been betrayed. "Kate…"

Despite the fact that she'd anticipated it, she was still upset at the wary way Jack was glancing at her. "This has nothing to do with your War, Jack. Nothing to do with the guns, or the Others."

"The Others attacked us. They took Walt—God knows what happened to either him or Michael—and then they took you! We have to fight back!"

"No, Jack! They promised to leave us alone as long as we did the same. Provoking them is suicide!"

"It doesn't matter. The guns are still the issue here. For all I know, Sawyer's bartering guns for bags of chips and candy bars."

Kate shook her head in something like shock. "Sawyer's an intelligent man. Just because he isn't you doesn't mean he's completely inept. His decision-making skills have been a lot clearer than yours lately."

"You're actually comparing me to him?"

For a moment, she was pulled back to her first days here, and she was trying to hide a smile as Sawyer made some disgusting comment, watching her anxiously check her watch every minute or so. She looked straight at Jack, trying to ignore the prying eyes of her fellow castaways. "You don't need Band-Aids and peroxide to run an island, Jack."

And with that, she brushed past him, walking briskly in the direction of her tent.


	2. Chapter 2

"So," Hurley began conversationally, pushing back a branch Sawyer had just let swing into his face moments earlier. "What's going on with you and Kate?"

Sawyer continued to walk ahead of Hurley. "Freckles and me? Nothin'."

Hurley gave him an unbelieving look. "Yeah. Right. And I'm a skinny black man."

"I don't know what you're talking about, _Hugo._ There's no goings on."

"Dude, you slept with her two nights ago."

Sawyer chuckled. "I'm just gonna assume you're talking very literally there, Hoss, because I haven't had any action in 67 days."

"I saw you two waking up," Hurley said, ignoring the fact that Sawyer knew his lack of 'action' to the day. After all, that was just Sawyer, wasn't it? "You looked pretty close to me."

"You spyin' on me or something?"

"I was putting wood on the fire to keep it going. Come on. You were all cuddled up and tangled together, doing that whole smiley, lovey-dovey "good morning" thing."

Hurley could feel the discomfort coming off Sawyer in waves. It was highly entertaining.

"Yeah, well, what can I say?" He hitched his backpack higher onto his shoulder. "Like I said, I haven't had any action in almost two months. Man's got needs."

"And you and I both know Kate's not going to be filling those needs anytime soon." He took on a singsong tone of voice. "But there you were, making googly eyes at her."

"You're delusional, Mr. Tell-Me-About-Your-Mother."

"And you're whipped, dude."

"I ain't _whipped,_" Sawyer said threateningly, glaring daggers at Hurley over his shoulder.

Hurley only smiled. "Yeah, okay." When he was sure Sawyer had settled down a bit—at least unclenched his fists—he made a low noise of a whip, and promptly lowered his eyes to the jungle floor, biting his lip in amusement when Sawyer cried out angrily, "I'm _not_ whipped!"

"Uh…stupid question but…what exactly are we doing?"

"Looking for whatever goddamn animal stole my shit this time."

"Oh. Right." Hurley paused. "What did it sound like?"

"Sound like?"

"Yeah, you know, that thing in your ears that—."

"It _sounded _like whatever the hell it is that ate the pilot."

"Maybe it's a dinosaur," Hurley said anxiously, fishing.

Sawyer paused, turning his head to look back at Hurley with raised eyebrows. After a few seconds of silence, he shook his head and began walking again. "On this island, who knows? Hell, I'll be Jeff Goldblum and you can play the guy who gets eaten by the squirrelly reptile."

"Why do I play him?"

"Because everything else is taken."

"Why can't I be the archeologist guy?"

"Because he's Jack. Annoying know-it-all with a complex."

"Well, what about—."

"Nope. I got it all figured out. Blonde's the Anal Ulcer to Sam Neill's Doc, little girl's Claire, the boy's Charlie, and the crazy-ass owner is Gandalf the Grey, beard, posse and all. Him or Dan Boone."

The walked on in silence. "Or, you know, it could be a pissed off giraffe."

"I don't trust you any more than I trust anyone else on this hunk of rock."

"Except Kate. You trust Kate."

"Would you shut the hell up about _Kate_?"

"Okay, so you don't think I can keep a secret about the guns." He glanced around warily. "How well can you keep a secret?"

Sawyer raised his eyebrows.

"Right," Hurley muttered. "Okay. But I swear to God, you say anything and I'll…"

"Sit on me?"

Hurley paused, then grinned. "Yeah man. I'll sit on you."

"Well, go on," Sawyer said, gesticulating that Hurley should continue on the track he'd been going.

"Seriously, Sawyer. This can not get out."

"You have my word."

"Like that means something?"

Sawyer shot him a look that shut him up, and Hurley motioned that Sawyer should follow him. They continued along a path that veered off to the right of the main path, and then stopped before a cluster of banyan trees. Hurley squeezed through an opening, and came out a few minutes later with a large suitcase, which he proceeded to unzip and open, revealing an assortment of junk foods that had obviously been smuggled plane snacks.

"Well, well, well. You've been holding out on me. It's right callous of you to horde all this crap."

Hurley sighed. "Just…don't tell anyone. I've got a reputation as a good guy, and I'd kind of like to keep it."

Sawyer scoffed. "I ain't gonna tell anyone, Robin Hood. But, you know I'm one of them poor people…"

Hurley nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah. Are you going to show me the guns or what?"

"Sure thing, Sundance."

Hurley zipped the bag back up, hulking it back into the roots of the banyan tree, and buried it under some brush, then returned, hurrying to catch up with Sawyer, who had already begun to walk in the direction of the guns.

"You're really going to show me?"

"Hey, now I got leverage. I could blackmail you right out of that good guy spot."

Hurley took no offense. He'd shown the food to Sawyer…what more had he expected?

They walked for what Hurley estimated to be about half an hour, when Sawyer suddenly stopped, dropped his backpack, and grabbed a branch of the tree in front of them, swinging up into the canopy. Hurley lost sight of him, and began to count in his head to occupy himself. At forty-one and seven-eighths, a large bag suspended from a long length of rope slid quietly out of the branches, and Sawyer called down to him to grab a handgun and a rifle. Hurley quickly complied, and when he shouted up that he had them, the bag disappeared back into the leaves. Hurley shook his head.

"Friggin' genius."

He waited, counting again, and then, all of the sudden, Sawyer was yelling. "Son of a bitch!"

He appeared a moment later, grabbing the rifle from Hurley, scooping up his pack, and swiftly moving off into the jungle. Hurley followed behind as quickly as he could, following Sawyer's padding feet.

They moved into grass that was higher than Hurley's head, and Hurley worried for a moment that he was lost—then he caught a glimpse of Sawyer up ahead, and continued to follow.

He cleared the last of the grass, and stopped dead in his tracks inches from tumbling over Sawyer. His eyes fell on the animal in front of them, the blue tarp gripped in its mouth, and his eyes widened. "Whoa. Dude. This is _so _much better than a giraffe."


	3. Chapter 3

Kate tried to control the blush creeping into her cheeks, knowing it was no use. No matter what she said, Claire was never going to let up on her prying questions.

"But you obviously still trust him. You fell _asleep_ with him by the fire!"

"You know about that?"

"Hurley told Charlie told Jamie told Steve—or Scott—told Rose told Bernard told Libby told me."

Kate sighed. "And I thought high school was bad."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"You can't tell me that doesn't imply a certain amount of comfort."

"We're friends."

"Very close ones."

"In fact, we're more like cousins than friends. The kind that don't see each other very often, but know about each other and when they do meet up they act like they've seen each other a lot more than they actually have."

"_Kissing_ cousins."

"We're not kissing!" Kate hissed. "We're not doing anything!"

"You've kissed. I know you have. And you are doing something "

"What are we doing then?"

"_I_ don't know. I don't think anyone really does. But it's certainly something."

Kate shook her head. "Claire, Sawyer and I…we're already so messed up. We just don't fit. We'll always be at odds over something no matter how well we understand each other. And…he still doesn't trust me. He _conned_ me. He couldn't just tell me he didn't like the way things were going with Jack and Locke. He used me. As much as I'd like to, I can't just get over that."

Claire and Kate stared at each other for a long time after that, the silence saying what words couldn't.

As Kate played with Aaron, she caught Sun walking towards Claire's tent, an odd look on her face that gave Kate an ominous feeling in her stomach.

By the time Sun reached the tent, Kate felt like her feet might just gain minds of their own and take her far, far away, just so that she could avoid this particular confrontation. But instead of looking confrontational, Sun merely smiled at Kate and Claire in turn. "Hello." She let a hand reach for Aaron's head, and stroked the soft hair there. "May I join you?"

Claire nodded, smiling. "Of course. I don't know what company we'll be, though. We've already covered the basics. Charlie troubles, Jack troubles, Sawyer troubles, Island troubles, trouble in general…"

Sun shook her head, half in amusement, half sadness.

Kate chuckled. "You know you're not in the best place when you recognize someone by their scream."

The three women nodded, thinking silently of everything that had happened to make recognition by scream possible. Then, as if Aaron caught the mood, he began to screech, waving his arms toward Claire, his face bright red.

Claire sighed, picking Aaron up and cradling him to her. "I'll be right back. Kate, is it okay if I use your tent?"

Kate nodded, and Claire moved off quickly, rocking Aaron as he continued to cry into her shoulder. After a moment of silence, she turned to Sun. "Sun…"

Sun simply smiled at her. "I knew you were using me Kate. But I wanted to keep Jin with me so badly, I was actually grateful for your opinion of my vulnerability."

Kate gave her a smile half-smile, one corner of her lips upturned. "I'm still sorry."

"Do not be. It was my choice to poison Jin. I do not regret trying."

They smiled at each other, and Kate gave a sigh of relief, glad that the friendship they had would not be upset because of what she'd done. She'd had so few friends in the past, and she considered Sun a very good one. To loose the companionship they had would be a hard loss to bear.

The brush off to the side rustled, and both Kate and Sun jerked their heads toward it. A twig cracked, the tall grass shuddered, and a moment later Danielle emerged, gun hoisted over her back, hair looking as wild as usual. She started directly for Kate and Sun, and they both stood, watching her warily.

"Where is the mother?" Danielle asked without preamble. "I need to speak to her."


	4. Chapter 4

Sawyer looked up when he heard footsteps and grinned in welcome, his eyes dancing over his guest.

"Somethin' I can help you with, Freckles?"

She bent to sit in the vacant airplane chair, and played with the tarp beside her, glancing around at the others as they set about making dinner. "Remember how you said I still had carte blanche?"

He shook his head slowly. "Hate to break it to you, but my stuff's gone. Thought you were listening to my little speech before?"

"I'm not here on a desperate search for tampons, Sawyer."

She watched with amusement as Sawyer's cheeks reddened in the fading sunlight of dusk, taking note of the fact that there was _something _that could embarrass Sawyer. She'd never expected it to be feminine products that could do it.

"Well then," he began, recovering from the blush by leering suggestively at her, "what _are_ you here for?

She shot a look around him again, and, seemingly satisfied, turned back to him. "I want a gun."

His grin returned, and he adopted a far off look in his eyes. "Well, now I know why Jackoff's so keen on having the guns around. He just wants to hear you ask him for a gun. Can't say I blame the man for his ego."

She rolled her eyes. "Settle down, Cowboy, before your ego gets too big to handle."

The feral smile sparked in his eyes. "Ain't the only thing that's too big to deal with all by myself. The ego you can't help me with, but the other thing…"

"Are you even thinking about it?" She asked, ignoring the comment.

"Course I'm thinking about it."

"And?"

"Hold on a tic, Annie Oakely. I'm still thinkin'."

Kate watched him as he pretended to be really thinking about it, but she knew he already had an answer all set up, some sarcastic remark that included a nickname. She waited patiently for him to finish stroking his chin, and when he did, she glanced back up at him from where her eyes had wandered down the beach.

"Well? Are you going to ask me what I want it for, or are you just going to sit here until it's too dark to go out and get a gun?"

"Hell, Sweetheart, you wanna tell me what it's for, you go on ahead. If you think it'll help you through the application process…"

"Danielle visited today."

Sawyer sat straighter, turning so that he could look straight at her. "What the hell did she want? Not Claire's baby again?"

Kate hid the grin at the concern in his voice. "Well, yeah. But Aaron's come down with something. And Jack doesn't know what it is. Danielle claims to know how to fix it, so she's taking Claire out into the middle of the jungle tomorrow morning. She didn't want anyone else to come, but Claire refused to go without someone. So I'm going."

Sawyer shook his head. "I'm sure the Doc's giddy with the knowledge that you're going out there with a woman that could be blown over by a breeze and a crazy woman who kidnaps people."

She frowned. "Jack doesn't know."

His smiled grew. "You didn't tell him?"

Kate shook her head in answer to the question, then bent forward, her hands holding up her head as she leaned her elbows on her thighs. "So?"

He leaned back, his eyes holding hers. "Hurley's got a gun I know he doesn't want. Just tell him I said you could have it."

She held his gaze for a long time, eventually breaking it when Charlie greeted them from nearby as he walked down the beach. "Thank you," she said softly, and he nodded, watching her as she stood, brushing off sand.

It still amused him that she would wipe off the sand that had stuck to her clothes every time she got up from the ground when she lived on an island, on a beach, as a matter of fact. As she moved to walk away, he called her back. "Hey."

She turned her head to look at him.

"Be careful."

She smiled, nodding embarrassedly, and turned, heading down the beach toward Hurley's tent.


	5. Chapter 5

Hurley woke to someone urgently jostling his shoulder. "Hurley, bloody wake up."

He stared around tiredly. "What? What do you want?"

"Claire's gone."

Wiping at his eyes, he slowly turned toward Charlie. "Dude, I'm asleep."

"You're awake. And Claire's _gone_."

Hurley shook his head. "No offense, Charlie, but when it comes to Claire you're kind of a whacko."

"You don't believe me? Come out and look. _Sawyer's_ got the baby, and Claire and Kate are gone."

Hurley blinked. "Oh crap."

"What? What's crap?"

"Move, okay man? I need to go see something."

"You don't _believe_ me? You seriously have to check to make sure I'm not _lying_?"

"Charlie, seriously, move. I have to talk to someone about something."

Charlie stepped out of the way, and Hurley rushed passed him, moving off toward, of all people, Sawyer's tent.

Charlie followed behind him, and caught the tale end of a greeting. Hurley was quiet a moment. "Dude, I gave Kate a gun."

Sawyer nodded. "I told her to ask you about it."

"Well…does Jack know?"

Sawyer raised an eyebrow. "Does _Jack _know? Like I'm Jackasses messenger boy? I can see it now: 'Hey Jack, buddy, pal. So you know how I've got your guns now? Well, I gave one to your girlfriend, and now she's off in the jungle with Donna Reed and Mademoiselle Marmalade.' Yeah, that'd go over _real_ well."

"Someone should tell Jack."

"Go ahead, Stir Fry. But it ain't gonna be me."

Hurley gave him a pained look. "So I have to be the one who's all, 'Hey Jack, yesterday Sawyer gave me a gun…and then I gave it to Kate'?" His eyes squinted close together, and he brushed a hand through his hair. "Oh God. I don't feel good. My legs are tingling. That's bad. Legs tingling is bad, right?"

Charlie cut in. "Where are they going? Kate had to have told you where they were going."

Sawyer shook his head. "Even if she _had_ told me, Robert Palmer, I'm pretty sure the ex- Mrs. Rock God doesn't want you traipsin' after her into the jungle."

Charlie looked shocked. "What if it isn't safe? Kate and Claire up against Danielle, the three of them against the Others…"

"Hence the gun."

"How do you even know that Kate can use it? Have you ever seen her shoot a gun?"

He shot Charlie a look. "No. But I've seen the look she gets in her eyes when she's holding one. You ever seen one of those documentaries, the ones where the crazy-ass guy in the matching shorts and shirt suit goes to grab a snake or a crocodile, and as much as you want him to get bit or have an arm ripped off, you know he won't, because he knows what the hell he's doing?"

Charlie nodded, shooting Hurley a confused look.

"Well, she don't have the suit, and she sure as hell don't know crocs, but she knows guns."

Hurley and Charlie were quiet while they soaked this in.

"Wait," Hurley said, glancing around them. "Where's Aaron?"

"Gave him to Daddy Locke."

Charlie bristled.

"And then Old Johnny Boy gave him to Mrs. Chewy."

Hurley gave him a blank look, so he elaborated.

"Sun. Sun's got the kid."

"Thank God. I think she's the only sane person left on this bloody island."

As it turned out, Jack would get the news from Sawyer.

Sawyer was chopping wood in his usual spot, letting the repeated, steady swing of the axe relax his mind. His thoughts revolved around the swoop of his arm, the splice of the wood, and the thunk of the metal hitting the base.

He thought of nothing else—his mind was comfortably empty, and that suited him just fine.

That is, until the beat he had going was interrupted by the voice that, for him, usually meant trouble.

"Hey, Sawyer, have you seen Kate and Claire?"

Sighing in exasperation, Sawyer swung the axe brutally into the base, and turned toward Jack, leaning into the axe.

"Why?"

"No one's seen them since last night."

"Saw them this mornin'. Sheila asked me to watch her kid while they went off on their little adventure."

Jack gave him a look that al but demanded he continue.

"Disappeared into the jungle going on five hours ago."

"Where were they going?"

"Hell if I know." He paused, drawing it out. "But if I remember it right…" Again, he drew it out, watching Jack's facial features grow from impatient to just plain angry. "…if I remember it right, they were following the French Chick."

Jack's back straightened, his eyes grew dark, and his features seemed to emit a "holier than thou" feeling, giving Sawyer a look that made his hubris inherently obvious. "You let a brand new mother and a woman who's just been kidnapped go into the jungle with a woman who's _known_ for lying to us?"

"She wouldn't have gotten kidnapped if she'd been _allowed_ to go with the group, Jackass."

"A woman who's armed with a rifle and uses it…"

"And from what I hear," Sawyer began, cutting over him, "Nothing would have happened to—."

"…without a second thought who kidnapped Claire's baby…"

"…to Claire's baby if you hadn't been following the CRAZY FRENCH CHICK who _kidnapped…"_

"…once before! What makes you think Claire isn't next?"

"…the damn thing while you were on a goose chase for explosives in a seventeenth century slave ship!"

"And thanks to you, they aren't even armed!"

"I hate to be the one to tell you you're wrong…" Sawyer said, watching Jack's breathing pattern with amusement, enjoying the way he could rile Jack up. "…but you're wrong. Kate's got a gun."

Jack bristled yet again. "You _knew_ she was leaving? You knew, and you didn't stop her?"

"Well, unlike you, Adolph, I knew damn well I wasn't gonna stop her unless I knocked her out and tied her to a tree! I know how stubborn she is, and I knew she was gonna go either way. So I gave her a gun, and—."

"You gave her a gun that you have no right to give."

"Excuse me? I don't think I heard you right. I could have sworn you just tried to tell me I didn't have the _right _to give someone a gun for protection."

"You stole the guns. You had no right to go near those guns."

"Oh, right, because Saint Jackass was making real rational decisions about the guns. You're the president of this island, and if it ain't about oil, it's about revenge. You want a gun, and I think you've got a good reason, you can have a gun. But they're mine now."

Jack was silent a moment, his erratic breathing the only thing either heard. The birds that had been chirping in the trees above them were quiet, and it seemed in that moment as if Jack and Sawyer were the only ones alive. "If either of them get hurt, it's on you. It's all on you, Sawyer." He turned away, hitching his backpack up onto his shoulder and moving off toward the beach

"Glad we had this chat, Doc!" Sawyer yelled angrily back, turning toward the logs. The only noise beside the returning sound of birds was the violent swing of the axe into the wood.


	6. Chapter 6

The sun was setting quickly on the horizon, and fish was crackling in fires all along the beach. Sawyer sat with Rose and Bernard, staring into the fire with an intensity that would have bothered anyone else. The fish on his stick was charred almost to nothing, but he didn't seem to notice. Rose glanced at Bernard, then turned toward Sawyer.

"Sawyer. You in there?"

He blinked, shaking his head and staring at Rose in confusion.

"You're burning your fish, honey."

He shot a glance into the fire, then ripped the stick from the flames. In the process, the fish flew haphazardly off, into the fire. He blew out a breath, cursed quietly, and tossed the thin stick into the flames, his eyes turning toward the jungle worriedly.

Rose gave him an understanding look, and bent forward to offer some of her food.

Sawyer stared blankly at it for a moment, then waved her away. "Not hungry, he said sullenly, turning his eyes purposefully from the trees.

"Be that as it may, you have to eat."

"_Look_," he started out, trying to keep his words tactful. "I'm really not in the mood to fight you over eating dinner. I'm not going to eat unless you tie me down and force feed me, and I know you ain't gonna do that. So just let it go."

She sighed. "I'm sure Kate and Claire are fine. They just went too far into the jungle and they're late coming back."

He glanced up at Rose, ready to deny any interest in the women's welfare, but caught the look in her eyes and lowered his head again, his hands continuing to make impatient patterns in the sand. "If they're not it's my fault. And if Jack doesn't kill me, Charlie and Locke sure as hell will. And who knows what'll happen to the kid. Coconut milk ain't gonna cut it for long."

"Aaron will be fine. As will Claire and Kate."

He looked angrily up at her. "You don't know that. You _can't._" He told her in a harsh whisper.

Bernard cut in. "None of us will know for sure until they're back. All you can do is have faith."

Sawyer's lip curled in disgust. "When has faith ever fixed anything?"

Bernard and Rose gave soft smiles. "Faith fixes everything, Sweetheart," Rose told him. "You just have to be patient enough to wait it out."

He nodded sarcastically. "_Right._ Thing is, I never put much on patience."

Bernard gave him a knowing look. "Then you'll never reap the rewards of waiting for something good." He shot a loving glance at Rose, and Sawyer watched them entwine their hands, a far off look in his eyes.

And he waited.


	7. Chapter 7

Jack paced the hatch, his steps growing more and more erratic with every turn, his breathing becoming less even with every step.

"I'm gonna kill him."

"How?" Ana Lucia asked, watching his pace as she sat on a counter in the kitchen. "He's got all the guns."

"I'll do it with my bare hands."

"No offense Jack, but you aren't the killing type. You look a man in the eye and you see life."

"I look Sawyer in the eye and I want to club him to death with a prescription bottle."

Ana smiled. "I guess it's good he was unconscious when Eko brought him back to your camp, then."

Jack sighed, stopping in his tracks and bending over the sink. "The sun set hours ago, and Kate and Claire aren't back."

"Well, Rousseau sounds like she can hold her own against the Others. I'm sure they just got caught up in something."

Jack sighed again. "I just can't believe she didn't say a word of it to me."

Ana smiled sardonically. "Seriously?"

"What?"

"After the way you yelled at her, I'm sure she doesn't exactly want to be best buddies."

"She yelled too."

Ana rolled her eyes like she was talking to a two-year-old. Which, in reality, she might have been. "She didn't call you a lying, backstabbing bitch."

Jack looked affronted. "I never said anything like that."

"You implied it."

"Well, I didn't mean to."

"_Well_ you should think before you speak next time you have a conversation with her."

He took a deep breath, and his head shot up when the door creaked open. Slowly, a woman Jack knew only as Georgia made her way into the hatch with a man Jack had seen around camp before, but never really spoken to.

The man nodded to Jack. "Here for button duty."

"Do you know if Claire and Kate are back yet?"

Georgia shook her head. "Haven't seen them."

Jack nodded. "Well, I'm going down there." He looked toward Ana. "You coming?"

She jumped from the counter, scooped up her pack, and set off down the hallway beside him, the two of them leaning into each other.


	8. Chapter 8

Half-carrying an exhausted Claire, Kate cleared the trees, limping it toward Claire's tent. A murmur went through the castaways, and before they'd made it even halfway Jack had caught up to them.

"What the _hell_ did you think you were doing?"

"Jack, you do not want to get into this with me right now."

"Oh no?"

"No, Jack."

"What were you doing out there, Kate? Taking Claire on some suicide mission—."

"I was watching out for Claire! Danielle visited yesterday, convinced Claire she needed to go into the middle of the jungle for God knows what, so I volunteered to go with them. That's what _I_ was doing, Jack. What were you doing all day?"

Jack ignored her, his eyes suddenly catching on the cut on her forehead. "Where'd the cut some from?" he asked, reaching for her face. She shrugged away from his hands.

"It's fine, Jack."

"It needs to be cleaned."

"Don't waste supplies on a cut smaller than my fingernail, Jack."

"Fine," he said angrily, his hands dropping to his sides. "I just can't believe you'd go out there totally unprotected."

She sighed. "I wasn't unprotected." Reaching behind her, she pulled the gun from her pants, showing it to Jack before pushing it back in at the small of her back and covering it with her shirt.

"I wasn't talking about guns, Kate." He looked like he was going to say something more, his eyes hard and glaring—but Sawyer's voice called out from the side a few yards away. "Kate!"

She turned in time to see him a moment before she was enveloped in her arms. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack straighten in anger, she turned her head into Sawyer's chest, smiling at the sweet tang of his cologne. She caught the end of something Hurley was saying, and Sawyer let her go, moving only a few inches away from her. "You get a gun and you disappear 'til midnight?"

"It's not that late."

He nodded. "It's late." The way he was looking at her gave her goose bumps…for some reason, his eyes seemed to be emitting the kind of caring that most humans could never achieve. It scared her a little bit.

"Were you worried about your gun?" she asked jokingly.

He grinned, leaning into her warmth. "That too."

Reaching behind her, she grabbed the gun and held it up for him. "Everything returned in one piece."

"_Almost_ one piece. I'm pretty sure your forehead ain't too happy about the split."

"It's fine."

"So I've heard."

She gestured to the gun. "Here."

He gave her a once over, and shook his head. "Keep it." He paused, his eyes on her, giving her that look again. "Just in case."

She nodded, trying to avoid the gaze. "Thanks."

Sawyer turned to Jack, who was still standing near them, looking Claire over with an odd expression on his face.

Sawyer caught Kate's hand. "Come on."

"Sawyer, what—."

"You need to be cleaned up."

"I can clean a cut by myself."

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Would you just come on?"

She shot a last glance at Claire, and Claire waved to her tiredly. "Go. I'll be okay."

Kate nodded, trying not to be affected by the fact that as they walked toward Sawyer's tent, Sawyer kept a loose hold on her hand, his fingers barely curled around hers, confident in the fact that she wouldn't entirely let go. It felt comfortable, and normal, as if they'd done it before, and, in fact, did it often.

He gestured to his airplane chair, and dropped her hand once she'd sat. "Stay there," he said, pointing to her in the seat.

She rolled her eyes as he moved into his tent, a washcloth in his hand. "I'm not a dog, Sawyer."

He ignored her, moving further into the tent to grab a water bottle.

She sighed, leaning back into the chair and closing her eyes. The waves lapped softly up toward the tent, the rushing of the quick ebb reminding her of running bath water. Distantly, she could hear the babble of camp talk, no doubt all of them gossiping about Claire's reappearance, Kate and Jack's fight, and Sawyer's impulsive hug. Behind the lids she rolled her eyes. They really were like high school kids.

The muffled sound of feet against the sand moved from the inside of the tent to just in front of her, and she opened her eyes as Sawyer knelt before her, washrag and water bottle in hand.

He reached for her forehead, softly dabbing at the cut.

"How'd you get it?" He finally asked, and she peeked at him with one eye, her other closed and hidden by the rag.

"Tripped," she said softly, and he eyes her for a moment.

"Yeah right."

Kate heaved a sigh. "Can't con a con man, right?"

He smiled, carefully wiping dried blood from around the closed wound. "_You_ can't con _me._ I know you. And you didn't trip."

"We met up with Desmond, and Danielle and I had a little difference of opinion about his identity."

"The guy from the hatch? You saw him?"

"Yeah. And Danielle wanted to shoot him because she thought he was an Other."

"What, you told her she was wrong and she clocked you one?"

"Basically."

He grabbed her chin with his free hand, and turned her head so that he could look her in the eye. "Basically? Now I know you're hiding something."

She blew out a breath. "I told her not to shoot, and she turned the gun on me."

This got his full attention. He dropped the hand holding the rag into his lap, the other hovering above her thigh.

"Claire got really upset, so Danielle knocked her out and held the gun to my head again. She kept asking me all these question, about her daughter, and about the Others, when Desmond heard us. I guess he recognized me, because he came up behind Rousseau and tried to overpower her. Eventually he did, but I guess I got too close to the scuffle and I got hit by the gun mid-swing. It knocked me out, and when I came back around Desmond was helping Claire up. Rousseau was gone. Desmond walked us back to camp. Said he was worried we might have concussions."

He nodded. "I like this Desmond guy."

She shook her head. "You just like him because he's shot at Jack before."

"Hey," he started defensively, "you two were my responsibility. I was the only one who knew what the hell was going on."

"Were you worried about us?" she asked with amusement.

His voice was nearly silent. "Does that surprise you?"

She smiled softly. "No. It doesn't surprise me at all."

He finished cleaning off her face, her eyes drifting close long before he was done, and she reopened them drowsily to find Sawyer watching her with a soft smile on his face. Slipping an arm around her back, he grabbed her hand to pull her up. She leaned heavily against him, only half awake, yawning into his shoulder as she walked wherever he was leading her.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked, her head resting comfortably in the crook of his shoulder.

"_You're_ going to your tent."

She smiled sleepily against him. "Aren't you going to try to take advantage of me in my weakened state?"

She felt the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I like my victims conscious, thank you very much. I'm not a complete monster."

She giggled, and then hiccupped, her head jumping up as she bumped into him. Arms wrapped around her as she started to tilt, and a few fumbled steps later she felt the arms loosen, slowly lowering her into her tent. She smiled drowsily up at him, holding her tarp aside to see him. "Goodnight."

Despite the befuddling grogginess, she recognized the look on Sawyer's face as the same inscrutable one she'd gotten earlier that night. He ruffled her hair playfully.

"Goodnight."

They watched each other a moment, and then Kate yawned again. Sawyer pulled the tarp slowly closed, and she scooted herself further into the tent. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.


End file.
